


Mutiny in the Snow

by Zoya1416



Category: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: Cultural Fears of Disabled People, Fears of Mutations, Fetaine-mutagen, Just a Cook, Mutiny
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-22
Updated: 2015-01-22
Packaged: 2018-03-08 14:38:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3212798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zoya1416/pseuds/Zoya1416
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Camp Permafrost episode, from the POV of the Greek tech Anargyros Pattas</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mutiny in the Snow

What should we do, where should we go, after they had discharged us for mutiny?  


The general wanted us to clear the bunker of fetaine. I didn't know what it was at first.

Olney said, “It's a terror weapon, a chemical which causes horrible mutations.” He looked at us and then away. “I heard about it from the last set of grubs. They had to clear snow around the bunker so the roof wouldn't collapse. I thought they were going to destroy it then.”

Lieutenant Bonn said, “Your job is to get plasma mines in place in the bunker. We're going to throw plas-seal in after them, and it will cook the stuff.” 

He gave us contamination suits to wear. I couldn't pick mine up. Couldn't put it on. Breeding mutie children? Never having clean ones, never having a wife, probably—never having a chance of normal life, when everyone knew.

No one put on their suits. Lieutenant Bonn looked at us, shook his head, and said, “Wait here.” 

We waited in the cold. I thought that they would bring up some heavy equipment to bury the bunker. Next thing I knew, Lieutenant Bonn and the fire marshal were back with the general and a squad of grubs with nerve disrupters. The grubs stood in front of us.

Then General Metzov said, “Strip. When you are again ready to obey your orders, you may dress and go to work.”

I don't want to think about what happened next. Then Lieutenant Bonn took off all his clothes, and stood naked in the snow with us. The general still didn't give in, and then Ensign Vorkosigan took off his. I still don't know why he did. Olney and I had almost killed him, when we tricked him about the scat cat.

It was horrible to look at him, you know? To see all his mutations, his hunchback. I didn't even know he wore leg braces. His boots had hidden them. But after he stripped, the general finally gave in. I didn't know that little mutant was Lord Vorkosigan, the Prime Minister's son. It didn't make sense—why didn't they cut his throat when he was born? Why would a Count let an unclean child live, and be his heir? And if he did live, why wouldn't they hide him, instead of letting him in the military And why would he be at Camp Permafrost instead of someplace warm, like a ship? I never knew.

No one wanted to be near me when I went home. My brother said,

“You're not clean. Nobody thinks you are.”

“I am—I never touched the fetaine, and if I had it would have been washed off in the decontamination shower. I'm not going to made wrong children.”

—it didn't matter. I probably wouldn't have touched somebody dirty like that either. My mother's friend's cousin's son had a Greek restaurant in the next district, and so I went there.

I liked cooking. We had all the home-style foods; souvlaki, kreatopita—I'd never eaten the goat kind before, and enjoyed it. Our restaurant was famous for its kleftiko, the slow-baked lamb. We would start it at five-thirty in the morning to be ready for the noon rush. It was always busy then—we'd plate over a hundred dishes. I became a line cook for meat, and for cheese if they needed me. I learned to cut quickly and firmly.

Here's how it happened: we were in the weekend dinner rush, everything backed up, when a waitress screamed. I got to the kitchen doors first. Two men were holding the waitress against them.

“Everyone drop their belt-purses, and give us the registers. You, too, Vorbretton.”

They had military weapons—a heavy stunner and a side arm. Any one who thinks a stunner isn't a real weapon has never been trained. Even as techies we learned safety. A heavy stunner directly to the eye can blind someone—and you can pitch over in dangerous ways breaking your neck, if you're unlucky. A man had started up from the table next to the door, and they'd already stunned him. I didn't notice his house uniform, or anything except the way the attackers placed themselves. Stupid—the waitress was between them, not in front. My first knife caught one in the throat, and the second in the eye. 

I found out very soon that the man who'd been stunned was Lord Rene Vorbretton. When he came around, he praised me for my quick action. 

“Anargyros Pattas, you saved my life as well as this woman—Tasia, yes?—and I thank you. It was very brave.”

“It was nothing, Lord. I just knew where the knives should go.”

He had beautiful Greek, unlike most of the regular patrons. Lord Vorbretton asked Stelios, the owner, what he could do for us. Stelios was ever sharp, and he told Lord Vorbretton to let us list the restaurant as one of the Count's top restaurants, for their official patronage. 

But Lord Vorbretton also gave me an award—me, the mutineer!—received an award and a civilian medal for courage. My wife is very proud of me, and has planted them in place of prominence on our sitting room wall. She makes sure our children know the story by heart, how their brave father threw knives as he had learned in the army, to kill the robbers.

Well, I learned to throw them in the evening, in the barracks, for contests rather than for the duty assignments—but the children don't need to know that, the wife says. I don't argue with her. I'm glad I've got a wife, and clean children. 

Tasia argued with me about putting up Lord Vorkosigan's picture alongside our own Count Vorbretton, but I didn't listen. I don't know whether he thinks of us, but in the winter when the ice crystals blow hard, I put more charcoal on the fire and think of him. He saved us, standing naked in the snow with us. Lieutenant Lord Vorkosigan, Count's son, mutant—he saved us all.


End file.
